Completing the WORLD CULTURES WITH TAEWON-DO section on an ongoing basis came to nothing – well, simple sclerosis and excess of what was more urgent. We promise to improve 🙂

So let’s to the overdue work. This following text „under the patronage” of the famous „To be or not to be” sentence from Hamlet must constitute our multimedal trip to the UK in November 2017. This is a place permeated with history, so seeing everything that’s interesting takes weeks. The November trip was my 41st one to Britain, and there is still a lot ahead of me…

The first attraction was a ferry crossing from Calais in France to Dover in England. Unfortunately, we barely saw the white cliffs, because we reached Calais 2 hours too early and we saw the coast of England at the meeting point of night and day. Many of us, for the first time in our lives, experienced being on a ferry on the high seas. We had a competition in Birmingham, so we found accommodation in Stratford on the Avon river, approx. 40 minutes from the spot. In Poland we have a section in the city of Brodnica, so let me give you an interesting fact: Stratford in Roman means Strata Via, equivalent of Polish 'Brodnica’ – a place with a shallow ford. This is where William Shakespeare, who needs no introduction, was born and died. As far as the interesting places are concerned, our competitors saw the house of birth of the artist, the house where he died, the Church of the Holy Trinity – the place of his baptism and burial. Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, the property of the poet’s wife, is also architecturally interesting.

The next day is Birmingham and competition. Our competitors saw one of the largest sports and entertainment halls in Europe – a few days ago the World Athletics Athletics Indoor Championships were broadcast from this hall. After the competition we stayed overnight – we went down to Oxford.

Oxford University is one of the best universities in the world and consists of 38 colleges scattered all over the city. The origins of this university date back to 1096. Oxford raised, among others 46 Nobel laureates and 27 Prime Ministers of Great Britain. RadosÅ‚aw Sikorski the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, studied here. During a few hours’ walk we also looked at the places where the films „Harry Potter” were shot. The whole Oxford is a HISTORY and student atmosphere that cannot be described in words. Somewhere here, behind a wall, there’s probably another Nobel Prize winner gaining knowledge… 🙂

And further down, slightly to the right and on the way to Eurotunnel we drove to Stonehenge. This is one of the most famous megalithic buildings in Europe, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. To this day nobody is 100% sure what it was used for (there are many theories), but the FORCE was with us!!!

Eurotunnel is also surprising – part of the team was convinced that we will go through a traditional „alpine tunnel” under the sea, but… the bus entered a special train…
Well, so much of this competition, from this trip. We are planning the next one, although we will not always be able to see so many great things.

Piotr GÄ…sior, 7 Dan.
The Chairman of Polish Taekwon-do Federation
The Founder of the Do-World Foundation „Learn the World with Taekwon-do!”